Like all of our posts in this series, this one has taken a while to write. We try to spend a lot of time in prayer and reflection on each topic, inasmuch as we view this blog as the primary public expression of our ministry the way that it is established at the moment. The ministry progresses in stages of fresh revelation every few weeks so in reality that is what it takes to get a post together. There are many more posts coming in this series, both relating to men and women, but this is the latest one for the present.
When we talk of “innocence” in a Christian context we usually think about children, who have no latent concept of sexuality prior to adolescence, then during that phase they become familiar with these adult concepts as they grow up. With our experience in the educational system, we know that some teachers prefer to educate children at this pre-adolescent stage of life, because that transition brings about so much change in their behaviour. Of course, for Christians, we have this much greater concern that the increased knowledge of sexuality that heralds adolescence brings with it the potential for sexual sin. Still, it is important to know what is a sin and what isn’t, and this post is primarily directed at those women who are focused towards living a life of godly sexual purity throughout their lives regardless of whether they are a child or an adult, single or married, childless or in motherhood, etc.
We believe that innocence is what describes not only the phase of life prior to adolescence, but also the discovery of a sexual body in that phase. In other words, we believe that a godly woman discovering that her body has these sexual parts and that they produce these physical pleasures, is not inherently committing sin. Masturbation or self touching of your sexual body parts and enjoyment of their pleasures does not constitute sinfulness any more than the enjoyment of food or the pleasure of the wind, sand or sun on your skin, and you have not ceased to be sexually pure from doing these things. Hence we believe that self touching or masturbation of your breasts or genitals does not detract from sexual purity as a single woman, and can in fact enhance and support it.
Sexual purity of course is not limited to single women, in fact all Christian women should strive to achieve it throughout their lives. The important fact is that you aren’t limited to achieving sexual purity by remaining a single virgin for your whole life, although abstinence is the most essential component of sexual purity for single people. In marriage the most essential component is monogamy. Within both singleness and marriage, masturbation when carried out for the purposes of sexual devotion or sexual discipline does not compromise sexual purity. Innocence is the state in which you remain sexually pure as a single person where there is no other person in your life, prior to marriage. We just simply want to assure you that you can discover your sexual body parts and enjoy touching them without losing your innocence, since we see innocence as the state in which your body remains known only to you. To remain innocent you need to continue making lifestyle choices through this phase of adolescence to refrain from sexually impure practices and to remain abstinent from sexual interaction with another person. These are lifestyle choices for Christian women to undertake during the young adulthood phase of their lives preceding marriage.